Golf board game

ABSTRACT

A board game based on golf comprises a board, a chart representing distances allied to different golf clubs, a distance and direction indicator, counters, markers representative of golf balls, and parts representative of arbitrary features of a hole on a golf course. The board includes first section devoted to the construction of a golf hole using said parts, and a second section which includes a grid comprising rows and columns of cavities referenced, respectively, in conformity with said chart and with an arcuate scale on said indicator, and spaned from said grid a target with concentric circles about a central cavity and from which counters can be flipped into cavities of said grid.

United States Patent Park I [54] GOLF BOARD GAME t 1 22] Filed: June 29,1971

[21] Appl. No.: 157,919

301 Foreign Application Priority Date July 16, 1970 Great Britain....'......34,445/70 [52] US. Cl ..273/87 R, 273/134 CG, 273/95 E [51] Int. Cl. ..A63f 7/00 [58] Field of Search....273/95 R, 102 B, 134 CG, 87, 273/872, 95 E [56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,157,172 5/1939 Hays ..273/l34CG 2,478,949 8/1949 Snyder ..273/87.2

Royle ..273/1s4 co Sell ..27s/1o2 B Primary Examiner-Richard C. Pinkham Assistant Examiner-Marvin Siskind [57] ABSTRACT A board game based on golf comprises a board, a chart representing distances allied to different golf clubs, a distance and direction indicator, counters, markers representative of golf balls, and parts representative of arbitrary features of a hole on a golf course. The board includes first section devoted to the construction of a golf hole using said parts, and a secondsection which includes a grid comprising rows and columns of cavities referenced, respectively, in conformity with said chart and with an arcuate scale on said indicator, and spaned from said grid a target with concentric circles about a central cavity and from which counters can be flipped into cavities of said grid. I

4 Claim, 5 Drawing Figures PONNLKJ I an GOLF BOARD GAME whose outline is representative of the bounds of a hole of a golf course, and the remainder of said board being devoted to a grid comprising rows and columns of cavities below the level of the plane of the board and spaced from the grid a target delineated by several concentric circles about a central cavity which is below the plane of the board and is aligned with the central ones of said columns, said rows and columns being referenced in conformity, respectively, with said chart, and with an arcuate scale on said indicator, said indicator including a pivotal pointer movable over said scale and integral with a stem graduated in terms of distances over the range of distances on said chart, the game being played by disposing within said outline at selected positions selected ones of said featurerepresenting parts, locating said indicator at a point on said golf hole from which a stroke is to be played with the pivot of said pointer over said point and said pointer in the zero position, and said stem extending in the desired direction of said stroke, selecting a golf club, flipping a counter from the area of said target into a cavity in said grid, shifting said pointer to indicate on said arcuate scale the direction indicated by the grid column which includes the grid cavity occupied by said flipped counter, reading off from said chart the distance determined by the grid row which includes the grid cavity occupied by said flipped counter in association with the selected golf club, applying said determined distance to said stem, and locating a marker at thepoint so reached, this sequence being repeated as often as necessary to get the marker from the tee to the putting green whereaft er the marker is transferred to a corresponding part of said target and flipped into said central cavity.

An embodiment of the invention will now be described, by wayof example, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a plan view of a playing board for a board game according to the invention;

FIG. 2 is a plan view of a locator to be used in association with the playing board of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a chart to be used in association with the playing board and the locator in playing the board game; and

FIGS. 4 and 5 are plan view illustrating two golf hole designs constructed on the master blank of the playing board.

' Referring firstly to FIG. 1 of the drawings, the playing board is rectangular in plan view with three distinct defined areas 11, 12 and 13 thereon. The area 11 is rectangular with one longer edge 14 thereof spaced from and parallel to one edge of the board 10 and the two shorter edges 15 and 16 thereof spaced from and parallel to the top and bottom edges of the board 10, respectively. The area 11 is covered by a piece of green felt and occupies about two-fifths of the width of the board, leaving the remaining three-fifths for the areas 12 and 13. The edge 14 is graduated in increments of 50 which represent yardages.

The area 11 represents a master blank on which a golf hole of arbitrary design may be constructed, there being provided in association with the parts of FIGS. 1 to 3, scaled representations of tees, greens, and various hazards such as bunkers, zones of rough terrain, burns, water and woods. The representations may be in the form of sealed aereal photographs backed by flocking. FIGS. 4 and 5 show different golf hole designs with tees 17, greens 18, bunkers l9, rough 20, a burn 21, and woods 22.

Referring again -to FIG. 1, the areas 12 and 13 are located, respectively, in substantially the lower half and the upper half of the aforesaid two-fifths of the width of the board 10. The area 12 is a piece of green felt marked as a target with concentric circles 23 to 27 about a hole 28, the latter being a recessed opening in the board and occupied by a cup below the plan of the board. The area 12 is a magnified version of a putting green 18.

The area 13 is a grid of boxes 29 which are recessed below the plane of the board 10 and are disposed in lettered rows A to H indicative of distances travelled by small colored discs, representative of golf balls and played in accordance with the rules of the game hereinafter disclosed, and lettered columns headed J to P in both directions from a central pair of adjacent columns headed I. The rows G and H indicate shots which have been skyed and topped, respectively. The two sets of columns J to P are preferably differently colored, for example, the left-hand set may be yellow and the right-hand set blue.

Referring now to FIG. 2, the locator is a distance and direction indicator and is denoted 30. The locator is made up of two parts, namely a sector 41 which has a series of graduations along an arcuate scale 32 and marked similarly to the columns of the grid 13, and a marker pivotally connected at 34 to the sector 31, the marker including a pointer 35 indicating the graduated arcuate scale 32 and an elongate stem 36 offset relative to the pointer 35 such that a longitudinal edge 37 thereof is on the axis passing through the pivot 34 and the tip of the pointer 35. The stem 36 is transversely graduated with distances in increments of 10 from 10 to 250 indicative of yardage and corresponding to the distances denoted on the chart of FIG. 3 hereinafter described. The edge 37 of the stem 36, is provided with semi-circular recesses 38 adjacent the graduations and adapted for precise positioning of markers representing golf balls.

The chart of FIG. 3 shows distances in rows and columns, the rows being adjacent letters A to H which correspond to the letters A to H on the grid 13 of FIG. 1. The distances are representative of yardage and decrease in increments of 10 or 20 along each row, the columns being topped by indications of golf clubs, namely woods nos. 1 to 4 and irons nos. 1 to 9 and a wedge (W).

The game also includes small counters to be used in pairs in the manner of the game of tiddlywinks and small colored discs to represent golf balls.

The game may be played by any number of players but is best restricted to four as in the real game of golf. Any form of golf match can be played, e.g., singles, foursomes, best-ball foursomes, etc, and this must be decided initially. Another decision to be made in advance of play is whether holes should be designed by the players or whether they should be representative of holes of local or well-known golf courses. If the players are to design the holes themselves, this may be done in turn or possibly any player who wins a hole may have the right to design the next hole.

After the necessary preliminaries have been agreed, the game is played in accordance with the following rules:

1. The order of play, at least at the first hole, is decided by the toss of a coin or in any other suitable manner.

2. The first player takes the locator 30 and places it with the pivot 34 on the tee 17 at a point of his own selection. With the pointer 35 maintained centrally positioned relative to the arcuate scale 32, the locator is swung as a whole to point in the direction in which the player wishes his shot to go and he then selects the club to achieve the distance he wishes his ball to travel.

3. The player now flips a counter from a forward position on the area 12 to land in a box 29 of the grid 13. This position is at 12 oclock on the target and may be termed the normal tee. It may also be marked in any convenient manner. If the grid is missed, one stroke is counted and the player tries again. The box 29 in which the counter settles determines both the length and the direction of the stroke, and, with the sector 31 held firmly in position, the marker of the locator is swung to any extent necessary until the pointer 35 indicates on the scale 32 the letter of the column which includes the occupied box 29. From the chart of FIG. 3, the player reads off the distance, i.e. the length of the stroke which is determined by the selected club and the letter of the row which includes the occupied box.

Example: If the selected club is a no. 2 wood and the occupied box 29 is in the right-hand M column and D row, the marker of the locator is swung to the appropriate position and the small colored disc is placed at the 2 l yards recess 38 in the stem 36 of the locator.

4. Assuming no hazards are encountered, the player continues from the new mark exactly as before until his small colored disc lands on the putting green 18. He then places his counter at the equivalent position on the area 12 and flips it into the hole 28. The number of flips of the counter necessary to get the small colored disc from the tee 17 into the hole 28 defines the number of strokes taken.

Hazards: Landing in a hazard with any stroke entails a penalty. Also, if the ball is subsequently playable, the player selects his club (see the following table) and the direction he wishes to play, and must then flip his counter from the 6 oclock position on the target when playing to the grid. This position may be termed the hazard tee and may also be marked in any convenient manner.

Hazard Penalty lf Playable Club Restriction Rough Bunker or wedge or wedge Burn Water Woods Skied: If a ball is skied, it will pass over any hazard to reach final distance.

Toped: If a ball is topped, and its path crosses any hazard, it is deemed to have fallen into that hazard and thus to have stopped. The appropriate penalty will apply. Also if playing from a hazard and the ball is topped, count one stroke and play again.

Out of bounds: If, in course of play the ball leaves the boundary of the golf hole, it has gone out of bounds and the player counts the stroke, returns to the point from which the ball was played, and adds one penalty stroke.

I claim:

1. Apparatus for playing a board game based on golf and comprising, in combination, a board, a chart representing distances allied to different golf clubs, a distance and direction indicator, counters, markers representative of golf balls, and parts representative of arbitrary features of a hole on a golf course, one part of said board being devoted to a blank whose outline of a hole of a golf course, and of the remainder of said board being devoted to a grid comprising rows and columns of cavities below the level of the plane of the board and spaced from said grid 21 target delineated by several concentric circles about a central cavity which is below the plane of the board and is aligned with the central ones of said columns, said rows and columns being referenced in conformity, respectively, with said chart, and with an arcuate scale on said indicator, said indicator including a pivotal pointer movable over said scale and integral with a stem graduated in terms of distances over the range of distances on said chart and to a scale appropriate to the length of said blank, the game being played by disposing within said outline at selected positions selected ones of said featurerepresenting parts, locating said indicator at a point on said golf hole from which a stroke is to be played with the pivot of said pointer over said point, said pointer in the zero position, and said stem extending in the desired direction of said stroke, selecting a golf club, flipping a counter from the area of said target into a cavity in said grid, shifting said pointer to indicate on said arcuate scale the direction indicated by the grid column which includes the grid cavity occupied by said flipped counter, reading off from said chart the distance determined by the grid row which includes the grid cavity occupied by said flipped counter in associa tion with the selected golf club, applying said determined distance to said stern, and locating a marker at the point so reached, this sequence being repeated as often as necessary to get the marker from the tee to the putting green, whereafter the marker is transferred to a determined by the graduations on said stem an adapted to locate markers.

3. Apparatus as claimed in claim 2, in which said board is of a plastics material, said blank and said target and pieces of felt affixed to said board, and said representative parts are backed by flocking material.

4. Apparatus as claimed in claim 3, in which said golf hole blank is graduated in terms of distance on a scale akin to that of said stem. 

1. Apparatus for playing a board game based on golf and comprising, in combination, a board, a chart representing distances allied to different golf clubs, a distance and direction indicator, counters, markers representative of golf balls, and parts representative of arbitrary features of a hole on a golf course, one part of said board being devoted to a blank whose outline of a hole of a golf course, and of the remainder of said board being devoted to a grid comprising rows and columns of cavities below the level of the plane of the board and spaced from said grid a target delineated by several concentric circles about a central cavity which is below the plane of the board and is aligned with the central ones of said columns, said rows and columns being referenced in conformity, respectively, with said chart, and with an arcuate scale on said indicator, said indicator including a pivotal pointer movable over said scale and integral with a stem graduated in terms of distances over the range of distances on said chart and to a scale appropriate to the length of said blank, the game being played by disposing within said outline at selected positions selected ones of said feature-representing parts, locating said indicator at a point on said golf hole from which a stroke is to be played with the pivot of said pointer over said point, said pointer in the zero position, and said stem extending in the desired direction of said stroke, selecting a golf club, flipping a counter from the area of said target into a cavity in said grid, shifting said pointer to indicate on said arcuate scale the direction indicated by the grid column which includes the grid cavity occupied by said flipped counter, reading off from said chart the distance determined by the grid row which includes the grid cavity occupied by said flipped counter in association with the selected golf club, applying said determined distance to said stem, and locating a marker at the point so reached, this sequence being repeated as often as necessary to get the marker from the tee to the putting green, whereafter the marker is transferred to a corresponding part of said target and flipped into said central cavity.
 2. Apparatus as claimed in claim 1 in which said stem is offset relative to said pointer such that an edge of said stem is aligned with the tip of said pointer, and said edge has therein recesses associated with the distances determined by the graduations on said stem and adapted to locate markers.
 3. Apparatus as claimed in claim 2, in which said board is of a plastics material, said blank and said target and pieces of felt affixed to said board, and said representative parts are backed by flocking material.
 4. Apparatus as claimed in claim 3, in which said golf hole blank is graduated in terms of distance on a scale akin to that of said stem. 